09 playoffs thread

JR Smith is great, I dunno what you guys are talking about

"if lakers fans can tolerate and even love kobes sociopathic preening anything is possible"

Laker fans just love to win and Kobe is a great player. People ignore a lot of nonsense when you are great. If JR Smith was a great player his nonsense would seem a lot more tolerable.

from a fans perspective we think abt things like respect for the game and appearances and whatnot but players are just trying to channel an attitude thatll give them an edge - its an insanely hard league to stay in and every little thing counts

The thing about JR Smith is that he has shown flashes of greatness - I dunno how many of you guys have seen him play before this playoff series but the dude can definitely shoot the lights out and get to the rack at will when he's locked in. One of the great things about the Billups trade is that he is such a stabilizing force for Smith and prevents him from riding Karl's pine; I predict a pretty great season next year from him as long as he's under Billups's tutelage

hes a talented scorer - insanely one dimensional and inconsistent tho

like last year he had a ridiculous end of the season then came back this year and forgot how to play for the 1st half of the season

icey you have a point abt channeling attitude but bench guys who know their roles and play them well get mad respect. jr's problem is that he's a gunner/bench scorer who thinks he's an all star.

like i mean i don't like kobels but he can preen all he wants as long as he's a top ten player and it's not going to bother me that much

i really do not understand how anyone can be unperturbed by kobe - hes like the creepiest man in the world

I don't find him any creepier than oh let's say Ray Allen. I kind of feel bad for Kobe. It's got to be hard work being that intensely competitive.

yeah kobels has an essential arrogance that most people aren't going to like but i think i understand where it comes from w/r/t his personality and background.

Kobe's intensely competitive but for all the wrong reasons, Ray Allen is one cool dude

xp

What are the right reasons for being intensely competitive?

You want to compete intensely

Ray Allen is an obsessive compulsive weirdo who perpetually looks like he smelled something funny. He's about as cool as genital warts.

And Kobe's wrong reasons are. . .

lol u r one blind ass motherfucker alex - there is something seriously wrong w/kobe - it was clear from when he first came into the league - if he ever sat down w/a psychiatrist i have no doubt hed be diagnosed w/a serious disorder in the first session - ray allen is ocd this is some much darker shit

http://i43.tinypic.com/16hp9u8.jpg

sociopath narcissist - something like that - he is just so one of those people who is always trying to act human but has no idea what its actually like

love that book. i've never read it of course.

Ray Allen is awesome precisely because he's an OCD weirdo, it's always amazing to me how someone like him can succeed and compete on such a high level despite such a crippling psychological hump

It's hard for me to articulate what exactly about Kobe seems off and fetid; maybe the best way I can describe it is that his competitiveness doesn't seem like it springs from some innate source, but that it's some kind of role or mask he forces himself to take on because everybody's been telling him he's the best; like he's going through the motions of being intensely competitive but somehow it's all a bit hollow and empty

I think sociopath and narcissist are two words that could be used to describe virtually every professional athlete. He doesn't seem exceptionally weirder than most of these guys (although admittedly his story is a little weirder. . . I imagine that's pretty isolating for a 17-18 year old kid.)

if i looked on espn tomorrow morning and kobe had murdered someone id be completely unsurprised

he is just so one of those people who is always trying to act human but has no idea what its actually like

― ice cr?m, Wednesday, May 27, 2009 12:51 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

This is OTM and a better way of putting what I was trying to say

You guys and your pop psychology haha. Seriously I get the impression you think way too much about this shit. Seems so personal.

http://nbcsportsmedia2.msnbc.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/040917/040917_scoop_bryant_vmed.widec.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y80/MaizCascara/patrickbateman.jpg

"if i looked on espn tomorrow morning and kobe had murdered someone id be completely unsurprised"

I'd be about as surprised as I would if anyone I didn't know murdered someone else (i.e. no more surprised than if Ray Allen or Rajon Rondo killed someone.)

"Ray Allen is awesome precisely because he's an OCD weirdo, it's always amazing to me how someone like him can succeed and compete on such a high level despite such a crippling psychological hump"

Uh you are aware that a huge % of athletes are OCD weirdos. It's not exactly a crippling psychological hump. It's more like a bonus feature.

lots of pro athletes are egomaniacal assholes - michael jordan fits the mold perfectly - kobe seems like hes on a whole nother level tho - his thing where he really thinks hes being charming and fooling everyone is totally bizarre - i dont think he has any idea that his paranoia and mania are so apparent

his interview w/the cops abt the rape charge - "its just my thing" - its just your thing to invite a woman who u dont know at all up to your room and immediately w/no warning start having rough anal sex w/her to the point that you leave bruises

this guy is just off

Kobe strikes me as a guy who has no interests other than basketball, money, and getting laid.

alex i dont know if yr just really unobservant in general or it has to do w/lakers fandom but uh dude

Michael Jordan ... wasn't Charles Oakley one of his best pals? That kinda says it all, imo. Dude is a mean gangster.

Uh you are aware that a huge % of athletes are OCD weirdos. It's not exactly a crippling psychological hump. It's more like a bonus feature.

― Alex in SF, Wednesday, May 27, 2009 12:58 AM (55 seconds ago) Bookmark

Superstitious yeah; but OCD to the same degree as Ray-ray? Didn't know that, do you have any names? Would like to read more about

"his interview w/the cops abt the rape charge - "its just my thing" - its just your thing to invite a woman who u dont know at all up to your room and immediately w/no warning start having rough anal sex w/her to the point that you leave bruises"

Your fantasy of that interview is really weird dude (even weirder than the ACTUAL interview.) Have you ever talk to a psychologist? Cuz I think you may have more problems than Kobe does.

"Superstitious yeah; but OCD to the same degree as Ray-ray? Didn't know that, do you have any names? Would like to read more about"

Like virtually every pitcher ever. There was a piece I read about a while ago. I'll see if I can find.

garnett otoh isn't creepy at all

ray allen has some problems def but he seems to care abt being a decent person - gives money to charity and treats people well from what ive heard

"alex i dont know if yr just really unobservant in general or it has to do w/lakers fandom but uh dude"

Hah it's funny that you say I'm unobservant, but seriously the outcome of these conversations just make me think you are as unwell as you think Kobe is. Your dislike of him seems to border on the obsessive.

Seems? You heard? Haha oh dude seriously.

i think kobe is creepy - were on a basketball message board this is what we talk abt - and he def said rough anal sex was his thing and it happened in the way i described

but keep fan boying it up for the rapist by all means

Pretty sure he said that c-on-ts was his thing and I'm pretty the rough anal rape thing was just a rumor. It's been a couple of years though. If you can find evidence to the contrary go for it.

yeah it was prob all just a little c on t no biggie

but u know if hating on kobe on the internet in a sign of mental illness then lock me up dr tedious

Haha seriously do you think the rest of these guys are fucking boy scouts? They're professional athletes fer chrissakes! They're all retrograde assholes and pigs.

I think your Kobe-anal rape fantasies are a little strange. Probably not worth being committed over, but maybe you should get help just in case.

alex if you don't share his opinion on this or anything else you are WRONG and DEMENTED

lol @ devolution into inane generalizations.

Haha seriously do you think the rest of these guys are fucking boy scouts? They're professional athletes fer chrissakes! They're all retrograde assholes and pigs.

― Alex in SF, Tuesday, May 26, 2009 1:10 PM (15 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

see its statements like that which might lead people to believe yr not the most observant - while im willing to allow that theyre more likely than average to be dicks nba athletes are individuals like everyone else - im sure they run the gamut of behavior and disposition

ice cr?m have you ever actually been in locker room? Or known a professional athlete? Or even read an article about professional athletes and the bevy of women who follow them around? If you think that Kobe's attitude towards women are in some way exceptional then you are WRONG and DEMENTED.

"all" was a bit strong. I'll replace with "mostly" or "frequently" so as not to appear to be painting with too broad a brush.

k again how is this difference from the population at large except that athletes have enough money to make it happen?